13 Facts About Enrique Morente

Enrique Morente Cotelo, known as Enrique Morente, was a Spanish flamenco singer and a celebrated figure within the world of contemporary flamenco.

Enrique Morente is the father of flamenco singer Estrella Morente.

Enrique Morente, born in the traditional quarter of Albaicin in Granada, started to sing as a seise.

Enrique Morente started to feel attracted to flamenco singing as a child, and had the opportunity to learn at family gatherings and to listen to established figures from Granada like Cobitos, the family of the "Habichuelas", or Aurelio Selles :.

Still in his teens, Enrique Morente went to live in Madrid to start a professional career as a singer.

Enrique Morente made his first recording, Cante flamenco in 1967 with guitarist Felix de Utrera.

Enrique Morente arrived back to orthodox flamenco singing with his recording Homenaje a Don Antonio Chacon, which obtained the National Award for best folk music album, granted by the Ministry of Culture.

However, in an alternation between tradition and innovation typical of Enrique Morente, the recording was immediately followed, in 1978, by Despegando, this time in an innovative mood: the title itself is, in fact, a declaration of intentions.

However Enrique Morente's mass is totally different from any previous examples.

Enrique Morente has tried the mixture between flamenco and classical music in works like Fantasia de cante jondo para voz y orquesta or with Allegro Solea, which he presented at Seville's Flamenco Biennal in 1990.

In Enrique Morente's aforementioned recording Omega, he mixed flamenco singing with punk rock, music by Leonard Cohen, and lyrics by Federico Garcia Lorca.

Enrique Morente takes the perfectly-laid, common foundations, defined by tradition, and on them builds with all the conceivable potential of flamenco.

In December 2010 it was reported that Enrique Morente had fallen into a coma after an ulcer operation, and had been declared brain dead.